Waning Tears... :)

Didn't want to leave the past post on such a crappy note... since time has passed & I have more to share... and I don't know when I will be on the internet again (hopefully, I can at least check email/facebook once a day in the office, but no skype/chatting yet)! Anyway, here are days 2-3:

Days 2-3

Okay, so the last update was a leeetle dramatic. hah. if you’re reading this, you should already assume it would be. Since writing my Day One reflection, I have managed to muddle through a few days of adjustment... here’s a glimpse of my life in Mulhouse, Days 2-3:

After crying for another hour & reading the biographical info before reading Bram Stoker’s Dracula for the first time (yep, vampire novels are a nice distraction in times of trauma, apparently), I began a 9-hr routine of shivering while huddled under a sheet & resetting the 45-minute cycle on my noise machine. Good times. But I managed to get a couple hours’ rest – enough to not immediately go to the nearest airport and quit.

Instead, I went to my pre-arranged 9:30am breakfast with M, where I regaled her with my dramatic evening. She was equal parts sympathetic & encouraging; obviously, she’s had previous lectrices encounter similar shocks... minus the marching band – that was a new one.

After breakfast, M phoned the Uni to see about my heat/hot water & made an appointment with the bank to set an account up with me on Monday. Then she packed up a bedspread, an electric kettle, leftover pastries from breakfast and a FAN, and we trekked back to my place where she managed to find the elusive hot water switch. I was unconscious by 12:30pm.

I awoke at 8pm, took a BATH & read Dracula for an hour or so before crashing again for the night.

After 26 hours of sleep, I felt rested & ready to face this new experience. Praise the Lord!

At 4:30 the afternoon of day 3, I went to a “tea” at M’s place, where I met the other lecteur/lectrices and a few of the English faculty. They are as follows: a lecteur from Scotland working in the school of business, 2 other American lectrices working in other depts (both of them were here last year), 2 other Scottish lectrices (one new, one’s been here for 2 years; I will be working closely with the new one), 1 American faculty who’s new to Mulhouse but has lived in Paris for 14yrs, 2 British faculty (husband & wife) and 2 French faculty (with whom I’ll be working closely). The tea consisted of about a thousand varieties of pastry, beer, wine & juice. After the tea, the American faculty member & I went for pizza (the only place open at 8:30pm on a Sunday) & I was home by 10.

Oh, & I fell while walking (SURPRISE!) on the way to pizza, so I made it a whopping 2days of consciousness before injuring myself, haha.